Posted November 18th, 2004 @ 10:29am by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: How many buttons does your mouse have? Don't count the scroll wheel as more than one button, and don't count "chording."
My Answer: Eight. The Logitech MX-700.
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Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 10:52am #
0. (Recent Apple Mouse)
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 10:55am #
Then that would be 1, Gary.
Source: http://apple.com/keyboard/.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 11:18am #
I have 5. I use the new Microsoft Wireless mouse on my G5. Honestly I don't understand why apple still sells a 1 button mouse.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 11:25am #
Hm, My MX700 has 8 buttons, and a scroll wheel. Your's must be broken.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 3:10pm #
I use MS's 5 button optical over USB at both work and home.
I particularly like using the two buttons on the side for back/forward inside of web browsers. I love using the scroll wheel.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 3:12pm #
I've been reasonably happy with my five-button Intelli-something-or-rather mouse for a while, but the logitech one looks interesting. How does it feel in the hand?
My only complain with the one I have is that it feels bulky just for the sake of being. I like the feel of the Apple mouse more, but I really like the five buttons for Expose and the scroll wheel.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 4:53pm #
I use Logitech's MX 510, it has the same eight buttons as the MX 700. I really like this mouse. 🙂
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 5:01pm #
Two.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 5:22pm #
My mouse (An Apple Bluetooth Mouse) has one, and my iBook has one. But the one (in? on? part of?) the iBook isn't really part of a mouse exactly. 🙂
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 6:18pm #
My MX1000 has eight, not counting the wheel tilting (which is just two buttons to USB Overdrive). I use all of them, esp. when browsing.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 6:39pm #
I always use the simpler Logitech models with two keys and a wheel. The wheel is never used as a key. I couldn't use a mouse with eight or ten keys. At a local PC dealer, I have even seen a model with an integrated numeric keypad. Everything I need is one key for selecting and double-clicking and one key for the contextual menu along with a simple wheel for scrolling. For everything else, I have a keyboard. I also never install Logitech MouseWare. Under Mac OS 9, that funny round thingy that used to pop up when you click the wheel frightened the hell out of me when it appeared for the first time.
I mean: what else are they going to integrate into those devices? A telephone? It is quite easy to understand that people want more than Apple's mice but I would really like to know one thing: if your mouse has eight(!) keys, what do they do and how can you remember which is which?
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 6:53pm #
"I would really like to know one thing: if your mouse has eight(!) keys, what do they do and how can you remember which is which?"
The same way you remember what F9, F10, and F11 do. Habit.
Also, many of them are simply logical. For mine: The two main buttons are of course left/right click. The two buttons thumb buttons are back/forward. The two on either side of the scroll wheel are page up/down. And last (positioned a bit below the scroll wheel) I use for switching between desktops.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 7:02pm #
My eight buttons even do different things in different apps. In Safari, my side buttons do "back/forward." In Entourage and PulpFiction, they do cmd-opt-] and [ (which deletes an email/article and shows the next unread one).
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 7:32pm #
1. Only ever needed one - my left hand's always within easy stretch of the keyboard and I'm a keyboard navigation maniac.
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 7:41pm #
1. I have an apple mouse and i love it 😀
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 7:49pm #
Jonathan, Erik: Right, it's all a question of habit. Quite interesting to see what other people do with this. Thinking about it, probably my biggest gripe about those mice is that I change machines quite often - I sit down in front of a peecee to test something in IE, I return to my dev machine, I walk over to a server or to a coworker's machine. I have always found this degree of configurability (does that word even exist?) to be quite irritating in such a situation - you always know what a keyboard does, but you never know what those mouse keys will do on another person's machine... This is also the main reason why I am a keyboard addict.
Back in my Unix days, I used to like three-button mice (still without a wheel at the time) - clipboard handling is probably the only real Unix innovation regarding GUIs. Maybe I could use more buttons if I could get an X Window clipboard behavior that way...
Posted 18 Nov 2004 at 9:53pm #
well...that is a tough question to answer. Let's see, i think I'll start with my mouse:
I have the Logitech MX-900 Bluetooth mouse which I think has 8 buttons, BUT...OS X only recognizes right, left, clickwheel...EXCEPT for Expose, so what does that come out to? 3 plus about half of 4?
BUT
I never use the thing despite the fact that I love it because I am always just using my laptop on my couch, and i've gotten pretty good with the trackpad and keyboard shortcuts.
Technically, the trackpad has 1 button, BUT I use Sidetrack so that tapping it is the same a right clicking, i LOVE it.
AND
I have hot corners set up for Expose so I get that functionality still.
In short, when people try to use my laptop they go crazy cuz anywhere they move the mouse it causes the windows to fly away which is usually something they've never seen before, and when they tap the trackpad it cause the contextual menus to appear, it's quite amusing!
Posted 19 Nov 2004 at 12:04am #
I agree with Ralph, X Window's clipboard handling is the best reason to own a three button mouse (and, for the record, having a scroll wheel pretend to be a usable, clickable button, is an absolutly idiot idea). For those unfamiliar, in X, you can hilight some text, move the mouse to where you want it pasted, and middle click to copy/paste. Furthermore, you can (with most web browsers, I think) middle click to paste a url in a blank area in the web page area and itll go to that url. Saves a ton of time.
My mouse has 3 buttons, just because I don't need any more. I suppose more would be neat, but what would I do with them? Left - normal, Middle - paste, Right - context. What do you do with more buttons? Short cuts should be kept to the keyboard imho. Games are good reason to have lots of buttons I guess, but I don't play that many. So, those of you with more than 3 or 4 buttons, what do you do with all of them?
Posted 19 Nov 2004 at 2:19am #
I had a logitech one with 8 buttons that I loved, but the keyboard that came with it died (cursed thing), so I had to do a full exchange. I never used the three buttons above and below the scrollwheel, anyway. Using a page up/page down button instead of a scroll wheel just never made much sense to me, and I hated trying to remember which button did what.
Now I have the latest Microsoft Bluetooth mouse, with the tilting scrollwheel. It sounded like an awesome idea, but it's not nearly as useful as what I thought. And it's harder to click the scrollwheel than any I've had before, which is a bit annoying, since I tend to navigate in Firefox by middle clicking (open link in new tab).